The present invention relates generally to telephone connections and particularly, to a method and system for implementing an intelligent redial system.
Telephone communication is one of the most utilized forms of communication over a distance between users. There is no more time honored and universal method of communication utilized that allows users to communicate with each other from nearly anywhere in the world. However, the very success and prevalence of telephone communication has necessitated ways to organize the sheer volume of calls so that users may be routed to a desired destination in an efficient manner.
One such method involves the use of menus which are selectable by a user to navigate to a desired destination. For instance, a user may call a store and wish to speak with someone about a certain product, and therefore navigate through menus which give the user selections between departments. Such menus have been utilized to reduce and even eliminate the amount of phone operators located on the premises of businesses utilizing the menus. However, although the menus may be efficient and cost effective to a business or other organization utilizing the menus, the application of the menus has increased both the time required by a user to talk to a desired person and has increased the level of frustration of a caller to such an establishment.
Telephones may provide a redial function to enable a user to redial a number previously entered. For instance, a telephone may store digits entered by a user, such as numeric and symbol digits, entered by a user to dial a telephone number. If the user was unsuccessful in gaining a connection, wanted to re-establish a connection, and the like, the user may then press a redial key so that the telephone would automatically reenter the previously stored digits. However, such systems were unsuitable for navigation through phone menus encountered, thereby requiring a user to once again engage in what may be a tedious task of entering digits in response to queries. For instance, the system may merely play back all the numbers entered without waiting for the correct menu to be accessed for each digit entry. Such entry may be further hampered by systems which do not allow a user to enter a selection during the query, but rather force a user to wait until all the options are given before a selection can be made.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a system and method for implementing an intelligent redial system.